Polymeric pipes have replaced metal pipes in many applications such as high-pressure fluid transportation. Polymeric pipes have several advantages over metal pipes including being of relatively lighter weight, more corrosion resistant, inexpensive, more thermally and electrically insulative, tougher, more durable and more easily shaped during manufacture. Such pipes are exposed to numerous stresses during their lifetime that may result in cracks or breaks that are expensive to repair, especially in situations where the pipe is buried in a structure or underground. As such polymeric pipes may be required to meet industry-defined standards depending on their intended use.
Polymeric material used in the fabrication of pipe has often been optimized to provide a more durable end-use article. One such optimization may involve the use of a multimodal polymer composition as the polymeric material. A challenge to the use of a multimodal polymer composition as the polymeric material in the fabrication of pipe is that these compositions, when melted to form a polymer melt, may display poor processing characteristics such as melt fractures, which are surface irregularities that occur during the extrusion process when the production rate is increased. The poor processing characteristics of these materials may result in a reduced production rate and/or product having undesirable physical properties and/or appearance. Thus there is a need for improved polymeric compositions and methods of making and using same to fabricate polymeric pipe.